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“Vitaly Petrov, Russia’s first and only Formula One driver, is to receive funding from state-run high-tech company Rostekhnologii following a deal brokered by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, local media reported on Tuesday.”

There are reports from highly reliable sources that G?â?®rard Lopez and his partner in GenII Capital Eric Lux, have sold their shares in the Renault F1 Team Ltd company, which was renamed Lotus Renault GP Ltd on December 16. The suggestion is that the Genii Capital shares have been sold to Group Lotus. If this is true then the team should now be 100%-owned by Lotus, as Renault announced on December 8 that it had sold its shares to Genii Capital.

“One of the most significant red letter days coming down the track in 2011 is the 40th anniversary of the debut of Rondel Racing. The immaculate F2 operation was founded jointly by Ron Dennis and Neil Trundle and formed the basis of today?óÔéĽÔäós multiple world championship winning McLaren operation that’s become one of the sport?óÔéĽÔäós defining forces over the decades which followed.”

Happy birthday!

On this day in F1

On this day last year the Tribune de Grande Instance overturned the lifetime ban from motorsport the FIA had tried to impose on Flavio Briatore for his role in ‘Crashgate’ at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Perhaps if Renault are only an engine supplier then Total will not be so prominent on the car – they might have had to be shown as they were on the mock ups of the new livery for contractual reasons as those images came out in 2010…

Ahh yes but the smart lawyer would ensure that if petrov is unable to provide decent money that no doubt putin,stalin & co. have signed up to compete again, he would/should a clause to the effect of â€śIf the Federation and governing bodies are unable to provide all the conditions to which the undersigned have committed to, then it is at the discrection of the undersigned as to if they are going to compete in the competition for the duration signedâ€ť. Or there abouts! Letâ€™s not forget that todt’s list for who is signed for 2011 included russian members. If theyâ€™re not going to compete then I would suggest that have breached contract if not some other law.
I think all that makes sense?!?!

“Petrov has no financial obligation to Renault. Even if everyone in Russia turned their backs on him, heâ€™d still be racing in 2011.”

Petrov has no financial obligations?? Petrov is Renault’s little piggy bank. You cannot honestly believe that Petrov got this seat on his 2010 performances. If it wasn’t for being Russian and the money he comes with, he wouldn’t have had a shot at entering the sport.

You cannot honestly believe that Petrov got this seat on his 2010 performances. If it wasnâ€™t for being Russian and the money he comes with, he wouldnâ€™t have had a shot at entering the sport.

Except that Petrov’s manager said he has no financial obligation to the team. And she said it at the press conference where the deal was announced, with Eric Boullier in attendance. Why would she say it if it was untrue?

It’s the same BS as Parr’s “Maldonado is not a paydriver”. As simple as that. I think we should get used to the fact that F1 people will try to stuff us with some ridiculous, cotradictory to the facts information.

Petrovâ€™s manager could easily be lying. Of course he/she wants us to believe that his client is in F1 because of his talents and not the money.

Yes, she could be. But she said it at the press conference where the deal was announced and Eric Boulier was there – if she was lying, why didn’t he pull her up on it?

Sorry, but the notion that Renault are letting Petrov’s manager present him as a non-paying driver in an attempt to secure more funding is foolish. If his contract states that he needs to pay for the drive, it would become immediately apparent to any sponsors they approached. And Renault could be held liable legally if they misled sponsors into thinking Petrov was not a pay driver.

And even if the contract in itself doesnâ€™t involve financial obligations, Renault could easily make him a â€śtest driverâ€ť, if his sponsors wonâ€™t pay.

They can’t do that. They can’t write up a contract that says he is not a pay driver and then refuse to give him a race seat until he finds sponsors. If they did that, they’d be before the Contract Review Board in an instant, and it would only take a couple of minutes for the CRB to find them in breach of their own contract. They would most likely need to repay those sponsors, which would seriously damage their 2011 budget. They’re not that stupid.

I think Lopez has modeled his team on the McLaren model, attract sponsers by making your team a focal point for companies to share infomation and contacts. He’s now even sold up part of his company to a manufacturor with large financial muscle, or as the people of Malaysia call it, our taxes and that oil.

thank you for the FAQ, but for the life of me, i’m not getting a password reset email. i have triple-checked the spam folder, and there are no blocks or anything in place. i’ll try contacting thru the normal channels to resolve this in a day or two.

the sport will rise like the pheonix from the flames of old! and bout time to the sport has slowly but surly been going the wrong road since 05 and we havnt seen real battles since 06. my point being there is a new hope on the table i think that the great 8 will go back a few years keep the v8â€˛s but go back to the great ruleâ€™s three tire wings, sticky tyreâ€™s that suit the car and driver the best, 1 engine per race w.end flat out racing as the great mika would put it (im a ferrari fan but even i knew he was magic!!) all the thingâ€™s that matter then us the fanâ€™s can get back to the good ol days of disliking each other because thats 1 of the thing that sport isâ€¦ any sport!its about or own we sunday war of word between friends and fow on who is the best team the best driver. these are the things that f1 has been mising i never turned races of in 20 years till last year when the car in front stayed there unless there was a problem! now i only watch the first 10 r 15 mins then the last half hour now i only look 4ward to moto gp! for hard fast exciting racing i have a great filling of butter flys in the tummy as we are about to move into a new and bright age thank god for the chaos theary it give hope to the masses and dispair to the greedy!! sorry for any spellin mistakes pepâ€™s

They had two other options for the name besides McLaren – Rondel and Project 4 (ergo the chassis designation MP4). But from my understanding, Marlboro brought them over to McLaren with the intention of reviving the team name, ergo the name McLaren existing to this very day.

This whole black and red malarkey all got started when someone saw the new black and red merchandise in the McLaren webstore.
The confusion arises because some people, in this day and age, still somehow think merchandise is related to livery.

Livery is a stable, consistent projection of a sponsor’s brand-image for publicity purposes.
Merchandise is a revenue stream that has to constantly change, and change radically, to immediately invalidate all the old gear, and have the suckers queue up to buy this year’s 25quid baseball cap.

Once you’ve flogged all the silver and red stuff you can, you need to get them buying the black and red clobber, in two years time it’ll be cream and red, and they can buy it all again … and all the while the car’s still gonna be quietly sitting there on the grid in ‘ron dennis chrome’ and ‘vodafone rocket red’, nonethewiser to what mayhem is occurring over at the merch stalls.

Yeah, anything other than the chrome would be better honestly. I think silver/chrome should be reserved for Mercedes’ Silver Arrows now that they’re back in F1, much as other teams don’t (in recent years anyhow) paint their whole car red as that is Ferrari’s color. That said though, the black and red is awfully similar to Virgin’s color scheme. Orange would be great, there’s a history with the team, and with Arrows gone it is now a unique color.